Map showing the size and location of the Northwest Angle relative to surrounding bodies of water and political divisions, including those demarcating Manitoba, Ontario, and Minnesota.

Minnesota's Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods is farther north than any other part of the contiguous United States. Logically, it would seem that this area of about 123 square miles should be in Canada. But this oddest feature of the entire U.S.–Canada boundary was the proper result of American treaties negotiated with Great Britain.

The first step in creating the Northwest Angle was provided by the Treaty of Paris (1783). In recognizing American independence, Great Britain agreed to a U.S.–Canada boundary from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. West of Lake Superior the line was to run by middle of lake and stream to the northwesternmost point of Lake of the Woods. From that terminus the specified boundary was a due west line to the Mississippi River.

Although they did not realize it, the American and British diplomats had agreed upon a geographic impossibility. They accepted map maker John Mitchell's depiction of an egg-shaped Lake of the Woods that had an obvious northwesternmost point. They also believed Mitchell's claim that a line drawn due west from there would intersect the Mississippi.

In 1798, British explorer David Thompson proved that the northernmost source of the Mississippi was south of Lake of the Woods. This discovery confirmed the existence of a northwest boundary gap.

The U.S. obtained an unspecified area west of the Mississippi from France by the Louisiana Purchase. In 1807, American and British diplomats tried to define the northern boundary of Louisiana. The British proposed that the 1783 water line be drawn only to the point where it first touched the forty-ninth parallel. They believed that from that intersection the forty-ninth should be followed westward.

The American negotiators rejected this proposal. They refused to consider anything that changed the wording of the 1783 treaty. Consequently, the British agreed that the northwesternmost point of Lake of the Woods had to be the starting point of a boundary extension.

The negotiators first provided for a new boundary that ran due north-south. This line was from the northwesternmost point of Lake of the Woods to the forty-ninth parallel. Then the boundary was to follow the forty-ninth westward to the continental divide in the Rocky Mountains. The administration of President Thomas Jefferson refused to approve this agreement because it did not resolve other outstanding issues between the two countries.

The U.S. and Great Britain finally fixed Louisiana Territory's northern boundary by the Convention of 1818. They accepted the due north-south and forty-ninth parallel lines that had been proposed eleven years earlier. This treaty completed the shaping of the Northwest Angle diplomatically. There was not, however, an accurate map of Lake of the Woods even then. Additionally, no one knew where the forty-ninth parallel was relative to the lake's northwesternmost point.

The existence of the Northwest Angle was confirmed by a joint American-British surveying commission, which compiled the first detailed map of Lake of the Woods. In 1824, David Thompson, the chief British surveyor, identified the lake's four possible northwesternmost points. The next year Johann Ludwig Tiarks, an astronomer employed by the British Foreign Office, determined that the lake's northwesternmost point was at the head of Angle Inlet.

The U.S. and Great Britain accepted Tiarks' calculations of the northwesternmost point. In the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842), they agreed on the boundaries that shaped the Northwest Angle.

Joint American-British boundary commissions determined the angle's precise boundaries. From 1872 to 1875, surveyors calculated and marked the northwesternmost point and the due south line from it to the forty-ninth parallel. During this survey both Great Britain and Canada tried to eliminate the Northwest Angle by reviving the suggestion made in 1807.

The U.S. government rejected their offers to buy the angle. The Americans realized that it did not have great economic value. But they persisted in rejecting anything that would change the treaty under which they had gained their independence. In 1912, another commission surveyed and monumented the water line boundary from the northwesternmost point.

Since 1925, a joint U.S.–Canada boundary commission has maintained the boundary. Among other things, the commission assures that the boundary is easily identified by appropriate monuments.

International Boundary Commission. Joint Report upon the Survey and Demarcation of the Boundary Between the United States and Canada from the Gulf of Georgia to the Northwesternmost Point of Lake of the Woods. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1937.

———. Joint Report upon the Survey and Demarcation of the Boundary Between the United States and Canada from the Northwesternmost Point of Lake of the Woods to Lake Superior. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1931.

Related Resources

Primary

Bigsby, John J. The Shoe and Canoe, or Pictures of Travels in the Canadas: Illustrative of Their Scenery and of Colonial Life; With Facts and Opinions on Emigration, State Policy, and other Points of Public Interest. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1850.https://archive.org/details/shoecanoeorpictu00bigs

Delafield, Joseph. The Unfortified Boundary: A Dairy of the First Survey of the Canadian Boundary Line from St. Regis to the Lake of the Woods by Major Joseph Delafield, American Agent under Articles VI and VII of the Treaty of Ghent. Edited by Robert McElroy and Thomas Riggs. New York: privately printed, 1943.https://archive.org/details/unfortifiedbound00dela

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Turning Point

In 1825, the astronomer Johann Ludwig Tiarks identifies the head of Angle Inlet as the Lake of the Woods' northwesternmost point.

Chronology

1783

The U.S. and Great Britain agree that part of the international boundary west of Lake Superior will run through Lake of the Woods to its northwesternmost point.

1818

The U.S. and Great Britain establish a due north-south line boundary from the northwesternmost point of Lake to the forty-ninth parallel.

1825

British surveyor Johann L. Tiarks determines the northwesternmost point of Lake of the Woods.

1842

By the Webster–Ashburton Treaty the United States and Great Britain agree on the map coordinates of the northwesternmost point of Lake of the Woods.

1872–1875

A joint United States–Great Britain commission surveys the Northwest Angle and places boundary monuments at the northwesternmost point of Lake of the Woods and along the overland due north-south line.

1912

Surveyors working for a joint American-British commission install boundary reference monuments on the shores and islands of Lake of the Woods and agree on the exact course of the lake's mid-water line boundary.

1925

The U.S. and Canada establish a permanent joint boundary commission to maintain their entire international boundary as an easily recognizable demarcation.